March 2021 Check In Thread

[BrooklynDrip]

Wins from last month
- Got a my first business card w Amex
-Got my Macy’s store card CLI $2K to $4K
- PIF personal Amex Cash Magnet card

The challenges
-My Discover card usage is way too high, 55% I needed to start aggressively paying it down

Goals for March
- PIF the CFU and have it report $0.
- Pay down CFF to $135 have it report 27%
- Hopefully get my 3x increase on my personal Amex Chase Magnet 🤞🏼
- Make two additional payments to my student loans and contribute more to my savings and Roth IRA
-Overall just continue to garden. I really have no reason to seek new credit, especially since I have 0% APR on all my cards until spring of 2022. 🤷🏻‍♀️

[Raison]

Looking forward to hitting some more goals. Definetly making progress on my credit rebuild. Im fairly happy with my progress. I have had lots of ups and downs but that is expected. I was gardening for a bit and came out and back in to watch things grow again. Got an email the other day that I was invited for a NFCU Gorewards card and went to their website and did the preapprovals, I was happy I was preapproved for multiple products. Just for curiousity of course and then went to the offer and figured it was best to apply for it. I got approved for 6,300 CL and will take it for sure. Paid a few cards off and this month my Self Lender Credit Builder loan will finish. Not sure if I will take a hit on the credit score or not. I am going to wait and see and possibly do another one. For those rebuilding its fantastic and such a quick nice and easy credit score jump. Plus you get the money back when its completed. Im pretty excited to see how the rest of the year goes. My goals are to shed this Fair credit score and get a new shell of Good credit. By May I should have bare minimum or Zero on a few cards. Im sitting at 4/24 and my next up is a Chase card. Im out in the Garden until at least 8/22 possibly. My score should be where I want it then for the Chase goal.

Good Luck to all in 2021!!!

[Anonymous]

Hey @BrooklynDrip - Nice job!

Did Macy's give you the CLI automatically or did you request it? I've been sitting on a $3,300 CL with them for years and would love to move it up. Appreciate any tips!

[BrooklynDrip]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hey @BrooklynDrip - Nice job!

Did Macy's give you the CLI automatically or did you request it? I've been sitting on a $3,300 CL with them for years and would love to move it up. Appreciate any tips!

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Hell no I didn’t get an automatic increase. 🙄 I sat with a credit line of $100 for years not realizing I could’ve asked for an increase. 🤦🏽‍♀️ Read on this forum about how fast this credit line could grow, so I immediately called and confirmed that it would be a soft pull. Went from $100 to $2000 and this past month called again 31 days after my last increase and got it bumped to $4K. Some will say I left money on the table, because I could have asked for more, but I’m new to this and wanted to be conservative. I’ll call again next month like clockwork for my next 💵 CLI. 🗣Go get your increase and report back! If they started you at $3k+ you should be able to get double if not more.

[Anonymous]

@BrooklynDrip EXCELLENT tip. I'm on it and will report back.

[Anonymous]

Enjoy reading posters who have been able to re-establish themselves! Amazing what it really takes to do it?! Your sharing is an inspiration Remembering my own experiences ... did not have any help so I felt my way along and it was slow!

[Anonymous]

Well, it's actually 2 months have passed and we are blessedly entering the 3rd. But since I late night read and post usually, quibbling over that in the face of Covid and in my case, Cancer and Chemo, would be silly. Thank you for the encouragement to post and check in. I'm new to the forum after having discovered it sometime last week or so. So, I am still shaping and forming my Fitness Goals for 2021. Like how much really can my CS increase in 1 year...

March 1st I opened a secured credit card at NFCU having discovered I qualified to join. Joined there over the weekend. Saturday I think. Wow, Their CS is available truly 24/7. And such a joy to hear and say things like Sir and Ma'am. I'm from the NE. Love those things.

I'm rebuilding after having blown my credit just over 10 years ago at the last economic plummet. And I didn't aim to get a new secured card again for quite some time. I was done with it and didn't want to do anything with it until just 22 months ago I couldn't get a small office rental because.... I had NO credit. Still. I didn't try to do anything because my income was inconsisitent and I was wrangling drs and hospital bills. TONS. 3 of which as it turned out got onto my Credit Report. The largest truly was paid by my insurance from the VA. Took awhile to get it removed. Having done so actually didn't really impact my score too much funnily enough.

My 2 Things I'm Aiming to Improve are...

My Total Credit Lines to be over $5000.

The Age on My Accounts. AAoA (see, I've been reading a LOT here)

One of my goals is to avoid the hoo ha from 3 years ago with so many different medical bills, doctors, everyone who touched me billing me separately. The confusion. While I'm being treated for Cancer, I'm aiming to get the majority of my services via 1 place/System. I'll still have a few extraneous charges. Just aiming to keep it manageable and not overwhelming with the extreme fatigue I have.

With aiming for the Total Credit Lines over $5K, I'm applying for things. Soft Pulls even when it turns out it was a hard pull. I've had a few of those. And where the credit score I had Jan 21 was supposed to be enough for JC Penney and Kohls but wasn't (because of the medical collections...), I got hit with hard pulls which I wouldn't have done if I had known the fuller picture needed for those two department store cards.

I'm now focusing on acquiring Credit Cards with CUs and possibly my bank, US Bank, because they have.... No Annual Fees, they graduate and increase your credit without the only option to have that CLI from adding funds to my secured balance, and better interest rates. So my keeping them for years upon years will be a good thing.

I just added a Discover IT Secured card for $500 to start my LTR with Discover.

My next goal is in about 2 weeks for the next Hard Pull after getting the NFSU Secured Card and possibly after my 2 new Secured Cards have hit my Credit Score to add the NFCU Secured Share Loan using the Alliant $500 loan trick. The CSR thought allowing a little breathing time between the card and the loan would be better.

Then I'll have a good mix of a few CC and the loan.

My under or about 29% utilization is mostly from the 2 Collections Accounts. I usually pay off my balances completely both from fear from bad behavior of mine from the past plus the super high interest rates. Now I'm going to have one the No Annual Fees Card show a $20 something balance. Any suggestions on which of the cards to do that on, please?

NFCU, Walmart, or Discover It? Or on the OpenSky?To date, I've let the Walmart Card statement show the small $20 amount. This month it'll be about $5. I understood from somewhere else here that Walmoo was one of the places which liked us to have small balances on the statements when requesting a CLI after the 4 months of statements. Working it.

I'm going to have to keep it and Cap1 for about 12-24 months each for the Average Age benefit.

I am not buying a house or car anytime soon. I just need to get my score back up over 700 so that I HAVE a good Credit Score already established next time I actually want/need it because indeed, it takes TIME to establish it there.

Thoughts on adding ....

A Care Card for Medical Expenses?

A US Bank Secured Card before adding another one at one of the Prime Lenders who offer Secured Cards?

I have....

OpenSkyCC Secured $700
Capital One Secured $1000
Fingerhut at something like the 4th of the 6 months I choose to pay at to establish a history of good behavior. Aiming to get it graduated to their Fingerhut Revolving Webbank Credit Advantage Credit Account
Seventh Ave Credit was something like $280 with my purchase.

Walmart $300

TargetRED $300
K Jordan $500
Stoneberry $750 100684900
Express $500
VS $300
Overstock $250

NFCU Secured nRewards $1500

Discover IT $500

My fiance has said no to financial brief assistance in the past, so I haven't mustered up the courage yet to ask him to add me an AU on a few of his older cards. That will be a Talk. When I do, assuming he agrees, that will raise things a bit. If he won't, one of my unmarried family members might. My fiance's cards are much older. My prayers are he will agree. My proposal is just to add me and to cut up the cards that come for me. I don't need or want them.

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

For me it's too soon to tell. I just joined a couple days ago.

Main goal for March is to bring down that utilization and get current on my car payments.

So far, utilizaton was 104% and now its 92%. Slowly chipping away and making sure I am intentional with my money.

Tracking scores quarterly,

Experian 582, Equifax 541, TransUnion 607

[Anonymous]

I managed to hit above 800 this month but only on Fico 9 EQ. My fico scores fluctuated up and down so fast last month. I am expecting it to do the same this month. By April it should a bit stable. I suspended my myfico subscription until beginning of Apr because it changes too many times in a short time. The reason why is:

Oct 2020

Getting around $15800 CLI from various cards within 24 hours. Helped a lot to reduce my overall credit utilization.

Partially Jan and mostly Feb activites.

-PIF 2 accounts with revolving credits. 5 other accounts reduced to 5 to 15% credit utilizations. 2 out of 7 accounts above 35% and 1 is 50%.

-PIF 3 loans --> Fico scores reduced by at least 3 points each on two accounts (Amex and RV BOA loan) due to credit age reduction. However, Affirm doesn't counts but it feels good to pay it off.

-Balance Transfer to 2 accounts with 0% for 12 and 15 months (Citi Double Cash and Discover)

-Approved Citi Double Cash $6300 SL and Amex Gold. Amex ED finally getting CLI for $400 after several years.

-Drop 3 HP on TU and 2 on EQ.

Mar activity.

-PIF 5 accounts (not reported yet). These accounts are betwen 5 to 15% credit utilizations from Feb.

-3 revolving credit reduced by around 5% to 10%. The 10% reduction helped me to recover back more fico numbers.

-1 account BT for 1.99% for 12 months today (using NFCU More Rewards that is being approved today).

-The Amex DG which I paid off but was reported over $1400 because it was a day after. It was $0 on Jan and $1400 on Feb.

  That cost me EQ -12, TU -5, EX -7 points.

-Drop 1 HP on TU

 Balance transfer would cost me some credit score points because some of the revolving credits transfer to 2 new accounts (Citi DC and  NFCU More Reward) while utilization gone up on Discover. They are not being updated as of now. However, beside the balance transfer I made major payments which helped with the positive scores. My Credit Card debts was around $44,600 on Jan. By end of Mar it should be $29,700 and Apr $26100. Along the way I did make some major spending.

I am hoping by Jul my credit scores would be around high 790s if not 800s. I am planning to pay off all the revolving credits within 15 to 18 months then I could make more payments to my auto loans and mortgage. I am trying to be debt free when I am still able.

My Aug Goal:
-Get a CLI on Amex ED or DG. I am hoping they wouldn't deny me this time. I got deny almost every time.

-Drop 1 Hp on EQ

-Get CLI on NFCU more rewards if possible depending on my balance.

[mgood]

@mgood wrote on 01-17-2021 07:07 PM:

By the end of the first quarter (end of March):

AZE2 - All but two credit card accounts showing a zero balance.

Those two below 50% UTL.

Those two are 0% interest.

Aggregate UTL under 10%. (That will be the tough part.)

No (more) new credit cards.

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And here we are, early March. I thought it would be tough to get below 10% Ag UTL because I was going to put the bulk of my money into a Corvette down payment. But I still haven't bought the car and I've been able to put more money into paying down credit card debts.

AZE2 - check

Below 50% on each account - check (below 30% actually)

No interest - check

Aggregate under 10% - check

No new cards - check

                APR         UTL

Eddie Bauer     26.99        0

Quicksilver     24.90        0

Cabela's        21.13        0

Kay Jewelers    21.00        0

PenFed Gold     17.99        0

PenFed Plat     17.99        0

PenFed PCR       0.00 (BT)  29%

Discover it      0.00       29%

aggregate                    6%